


Lasting Impression

by matrixrefugee



Category: Person of Interest (TV)
Genre: Blind Date, F/M, Pre-Canon
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-04-27
Updated: 2019-04-27
Packaged: 2020-02-07 04:46:10
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 847
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18613432
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/matrixrefugee/pseuds/matrixrefugee
Summary: Neither one of them expected to find love, much less during a first date...





	Lasting Impression

**Author's Note:**

> Written for < lj user="love_bingo">'s "finding love". Reese/Jessica, pre-series.

_"When you find that one person who connects you to the world, you become someone different, someone better._

A blind date: Jessica wasn't against the idea, when Sarah, her roommate, offered to bring her along, to make it a foursome. But she had had some rocky experiences in the past, which made her approach the event with some misgivings: one guy came on too strong and kept bugging her over the phone; another guy was too self-centered, and then there was the handsy guy whom she had to run from before anything worse happened. But Sarah claimed she knew the guy well, since he was a buddy of Darren, her current boyfriend.

"This guy's different: he's a nice guy who'll keep the creeps away from you," Sarah coaxed. "He's in the military."

"So he's on leave or something?" Jessica asked.

"No, I think he's been transferred to the base: he's staying put for a while."

Till the next time he got shipped out, Jessica thought. "Okay, I'll come along." What did she have to lose? It was a way to kill an empty Friday night.

* * * *

He didn't think he was ready to start dating: he had just gotten back to the States after a tour in Korea and he felt as though his feet had not yet gotten settled on the dirt. But his buddy insisted that he come along, that his girlfriend Sarah had a friend from nursing school who needed some company.

"She's a sweet kid, like a sister to Sarah. But she's got this lost kitten look about her," Darren said.

"Sounds a bit clingy," John replied, not wholly impressed.

"She's a nurse, she can handle the tough stuff, but she needs a strong guy she can lean on when it gets to be too much," Darren argued.

"Turning matchmaker now, Darren? Didn't think you had it in you," John replied, dryly.

"I ain't setting you up with a little house and a white picket fence, I'm just trying to find you a nice girl for a change," Darren wheedled.

"All right, I'll come along." If only to shut his buddy up.

* * * *

She didn't know what to expect, but Jessica certainly didn't expect the tall, slim man, dark haired with pale eyes in a lean, tanned face. He carried himself straight, his posture speaking 'military' even more than the Army dress greens he wore, but he moved well, with an easy grace, as he and Darren stepped into the apartment, almost tiger-like. She had the feeling he could be every bit as dangerous as a large predator, but only when he had to resort to that. He did not loom large, but he did seem to hover in the background, almost as if he were casing the place before ducking out. But when he looked at her, his narrow green eyes seemed to soften just enough, betraying his interest, but a gentle sort

"Jessica, this is John," Sarah said, introducing her boyfriend's buddy.

"Hi... hello, John," Jessica said, feeling herself smile up at him.

A smile cracked the man's mask of dangerous calm, quirking the corners of his mouth and bringing a glint to his pale eyes. "Jessica, it's a pleasure..."

* * * *

Part of him denied it, that part of him that wanted to stay detached, the part that kept telling himself he was too hardened to be a good husband and, if it came to that, a good father. But another, wiser part told him that he had to stop thinking that way and let this woman into his life and into his heart. He could tell himself this was just another stateside fling while he waited to be deployed for the next tour, but he knew deep down in the core of his heart and soul -- if he still had a soul -- that it was more than just that, that Jessica was not going anywhere. He could tell himself that Jessica deserved better, someone less damaged, more stable, carrying less baggage from the things he had done, but he knew that the part of him that kept yattering all these things was just making excuses, and that it needed to shut up and let him move on.

Love at first sight was never his thing, but this just might be the proverbial first time for anything. And Jessica had started to turn into his everything. They spent the first night talking till well into the wee hours, just the two of them, discovering each other. He found himself opening up places in his heart that he had shut away, doors in his soul that he had barred.

And she did not fear him, even when he told her that he had seen combat, and while he could not tell her the particulars, he told her that he had done things that sometimes echoed back from the darker places in his soul.

"You did this to protect others, to serve your country," she said. "That's all that matters."

And the fact that she accepted him, darkness and all, was all that mattered to him.


End file.
